Shinobi Blinders
by WinterJade
Summary: Wherein Sakura contemplates the idea and concept of 'evil' and 'insane'. Whimsical, fluffy, sappy, romantic DeiSaku. Very slight lime. I'm thinking about temporarily taking this off to rework it. Fill in plot holes, add a little dialouge, etc etc.


I was suffering from fan fiction withdrawal from not writing anything in a while when my mom decided to be lenient and give me a chance to stop the beating inflicted on me by my enraged Council, who don't understand the meaning of the word grounded. This story has a slight lime, and it is approached almost as a case study, but with DeiSaku. Consider yourself notified. So here I am, furiously typing out what could end up being my best idea yet. Or it could end up as my worst disaster. Review so I don't confuse myself as always, please!

Disclaimer: Jade doesn't own anything except ideas. She is officially claiming ownership of any Galagananae fruits if you happen to stumble on any, which she sincerely doubts since no one seems to know what they look like. Or smell like, taste like, feel like, etc etc. And so on.

A long time ago, the world was dominated by five great nations. These five nations were surrounded by smaller areas, but the five were the Great Powers, the Rulers, the Supremes, and whatever people said of them. Each of these nations had a hidden village, one that housed warriors known as shinobi as well as every day people. The best of these was the Nation of Fire Konoha, the Hidden Village in the Leaves. Konoha had a reputation for their shinobi that could not be beaten, although their ally, Suna, Hidden Village of the Sand, was the only village that came close. Konoha was known to produce incredibly powerful shinobi with high morals. They were nearly unmatched in their power and their intelligence.

But no village was perfect. It was rare, but possible for a shinobi to end up defecting from their village, and in some cases become villains to all the original nations. Being a shinobi village, the shinobi viewed as villains prove more dangerous than average civilian army deserters. To make matters more complicated, a group of these renegades, not only from Konoha but all over the place, banded together to make a particularly fierce organization.

They were known as the Akatsuki. On the surface, they were an evil lot, bent on taking over the shinobi world. Among them were the ones known as the sadists, the masochists, the insane, the ruthless, and the misguided.

The most dangerous were the intelligent ones. They were calculating, cold, and had been the apple of their nation's eyes before they left. Being a prodigy tended to lead shinobi down the wrong paths.

However, beneath the surface they were people. Though a few were questionably human, they were undeniably living, breathing people. They had likes and dislikes, had had hopes and dreams and family.

People in general tend to make their own enemies. Villages were not always morally upright, and beneath _their_ surface corruption took place in the shadows. Some were betrayed, killed, or a group rose to take control. This is what produced the renegades- circumstances that were not entirely their fault. If you dove deep into the Akatsuki, you would find perhaps one, and at the maximum two who were truly evil.

If you wish, you could take a younger and less experienced member of the Akatsuki as an example. Deidara was from Iwa, a hidden village carved out in the rock from the northern part of the world. He had a unique bloodline trait, a special genetic ability. His was the first. When he was born, his family loved him, but as he grew up, he began to grow mouths on the palms of his hands. It became his bloodline. His family was outraged, and gave the betrayed Deidara to Iwa for a large reward. Iwa recognized the value in his hands, and started training him to a shinobi immediately. Iwa was militaristic, constantly picking fights and loving the bloodshed. Deidara did not fit in. He loved only his ideas about art; that it was fleeting, like an explosion. He would create explosive clay using his hands and blow up random buildings. When Iwa tried to suppress his behavior, Deidara was not happy. He ran and joined Akatsuki to stay alive. There weren't many choices for a renegade, and the few that were powerful enough to get into Akatsuki would be fools to refuse a larger chance of survival.

None of the shinobi from the organized nations, not even Konoha, looked to see his story. All they saw was an insane shinobi obsessed with his precious explosions. Insane was the label given to all of the members. They would definitely seem insane to a blind outsider.

The kunoichi lying in the grass gave a happy sigh as she felt the rays of the warm shift to fall on her lazily.

It was not until the fifth leader of Konoha gained an apprentice that someone had finally decided that they had to look underneath the underneath.

The kunoichi almost smiled sarcastically at the thought. The one to teach her that phrase had actually failed to practice what he preached. The Copy-nin took longer to see under the surface of the Akatsuki than his student did. It was ironic, and rather odd.

_But_, Sakura wondered_, I shouldn't be using the word odd. I do have that same insane artist, after all. I'm not exactly in a position to judge._

Deidara was the one she looked at. She found his story. Sure, people questioned her as to why she was so interested in a hopeless case, but she couldn't answer them. Sakura had no idea why she kept going even as the search became more and more complicated the long she looked. It paid off.

The next time Sakura met Deidara in battle, she didn't lift a finger to save herself. The shinobi was furious because she wouldn't fight him, and she explained. She related his entire story, and something broke.

He didn't go truly insane. Instead, he did the one thing Sakura was desperately trying not to let him do. He made her fall in love with him.

Not that he knew what he was doing. He had no idea, and that was the topper. An Akatsuki member being completely innocent, and having no clue…was what did it in for Sakura. And what was even more surprising…

"Mommy! Mommy, where are you?" Sakura sighed. She could tell she wasn't going to get any more peace for today, so she answered.

"Over here. Seriously Dei you couldn't keep her occupied for more than an hour?"

"Well, she wanted you, un. I figured it was easier to follow her that confine her to one space and have to go chasing all over Konoha looking for her when she escaped, un!" A blond man answered indignantly, stepping out from the shadows of the trees. He was holding the small hand of their four year old daughter, Misaki. Her long golden hair was short in the same style as her mother's, and her vibrant green eyes looked up at the two nin wonderingly. Slowly, her attractive features pulled into a mischievous smile. Deidara jumped a mile high.

"Misaki, un! You don't bite!" He scolded after forcing her to show him her hands. Sure enough, her hands had two tiny twin mouths, currently curled in identical smiles. "It hurts like someone is biting you with the teeth in the mouth on their face, un!"

"Really?" came Misaki's curious voice. Sakura sighed. Coming from Deidara that didn't hold much weight considering he loved it when she bit his collarbone. She wouldn't say anything but speaking of collarbones…

"Really, un." After Deidara had gotten clearance from a drunk Tsunade, he had gotten recruited into ANBU. Sakura had been working alone temporarily, but when she fought for the blond man so ferociously, Ibiki decided to avoid further injury by creating the first and only ANBU pair. Everyone else in ANBU were on squads, as per long-standing protocol. The ANBU leader had made a special exception, as people seem compelled to do when they see Sakura and Deidara together.

First it was Tsunade. Though she had been drunk, a large part of her decision to let Deidara stay had been because she said he was practically falling over himself like a newborn with love for her apprentice.

Next was Naruto. The blond idiot had started a full blown bar brawl when saw the two together. Among the insults that Deidara was going to use his hands inappropriately –the kunoichi had never seen the S-class nin smirk so much- he proclaimed loudly that although no one was good enough for his Sakura, it seemed that Sakura really loved him and that Deidara loved her, which was more than Sasuke-bastard had ever done. That was a huge acceptance in Sakura's book.

Then, it was Ino-pig. Sakura really didn't care what she thought, but Ino insisted that if Deidara shared his hair-care secrets, she would have no problems with the relationship. Again, Ino usually doesn't let Sakura date shinobi, let alone marry them, but by that time Ino was thoroughly bribed with hair care and fashion ideas.

Finally was Kakashi. Deidara claimed his interrogations alone were worse than Ibiki (protocol for ANBU) Shizune (who thought of Sakura as a sister) and Yamato's (who had decided Sakura was like a daughter to him) combined. That was saying something. At the end, when Deidara had been thoroughly picked apart, Kakashi had reluctantly concluded that he truly loved her. None of those people had been left unscathed when Sakura found out her lover had been under their questioning, except perhaps Yamato, who realized exactly how powerful his scary face is, and was left wondering if he had signed his own death wish when he had taught the twenty-one year-old kunoichi his best intimidation tactic.

But… back to that wonderful ANBU outfit Deidara was in for a mission…"Misuki, why don't you go play with Rin for a while?" In tribute to his sensei, Naruto's little girl had been named after Kakashi's long lost teammate. Hinata had been willing to go along with it, as long as she got to name the boy.

Deidara looked confusedly over at her as Misuki broke away from her father's hand with a squeal of delight, running towards the Hokage tower, where Naruto was learning the ropes from an aging Tsunade. He often took his child to work, and would be fully instated as the Sixth in a few weeks.

Sakura finally got up off the warm earth, stealthily creeping towards her husband. Suddenly, she pounced, knocking him over into the grass. She began to kiss her way to that collarbone, biting and licking as she went. When she sat back with a look of satisfaction in her eyes at the purple mark, Deidara caught her lips with his own. It wasn't the normal one thy shared; it wasn't comforting or demanding or passionate. It was a leisurely kiss, one of happiness and contentment.

And Sakura loved every second of it. It was corny, but she really did feel as if everything was perfect.

As if this were a beginning rather than an end.

To what she didn't know.

But she was ready to find out.

-sigh- My endings are sappy, corny, cliché, you name it, I gots it. But I can't help it! I needed fluffy romance. I have none to read, therefore I must write. And it's SHORT! What's with me and the shortness lately? S'only four pages. My standard is five or six. I think I fell a little short.

Fun fact: This original title I have saved under is Time After Time, which has nothing to do with this story. Actually the title's more suited to TPW or Can't Stop, which are POTC stories.

Torn between two fandoms,

Jade


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